Time flies when you’re making great music, and in what seems like the blink of an eye Linkin Park have become the latest act inducted into Guitar Center’s RockWalk in Hollywood. The band took part in a special ceremony Wednesday (June 18) at the Los Angeles’ Guitar Center, where they forever cemented their handprints alongside some of music’s greats.

‘Guitar Center Sessions’ host Nic Harcourt and KROQ DJ Stryker each offered some kind words and impressive stats about the band before they were introduced to those in attendance. Stryker offered, “They’re one cohesive unit. They take what they do very seriously. And they also realize that just because you have a hit record, that does not guarantee anything. Cause in two years, you better have that same work ethic, you better be great to your fans, and you better work hard, you better tour like crazy and you’ve got to be incredible live. Linkin Park has done that from Day 1.”

Before placing their hands in the cement, the band chose Chester Bennington to speak on their behalf and in reflection, he recalled, “This spot in L.A., this strip of L.A., really means a lot to me. It was the very first place I met these guys.”

Later, during the Q&A session, Bennington joked that he was planning to set up a pen-pal relationship with his handprints, before offering the more serious answer, “I definitely think it’d be fun to bring my kids down and show them this type of thing. It’s just an interesting thing that not everybody gets to be a part of. It’s fun for them to see me in a different way. I’m sure that my 8-year-old son truly believes that I’m a superhero, cause I told him that that’s what I do, so it’ll be fun and I think he enjoys seeing these kind of things. So yeah, we’ll come back and visit it.”

Meanwhile, DJ Joe Hahn joked, “I think it’d be cool if someone ever made a movie about us where at the end of the movie, we’re old men. And we come back here and go, “Awww” and put our hands in it. ”

Speaking about their actual block that will be added to the RockWalk, Mike Shinoda added, “When we were walking in this morning, I was immediately really disappointed in our band for not having a mascot. ‘Cause I realized that Eddie has the skeleton hand in the front, the Iron Maiden one, it was making me wish that we’d had that in our band.”

The guys also reflected on the early days, playing their first show in a bedroom at a fraternity party. Bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell also recalled, “It’s kind of funny, but we used to play one show seemingly every two months or something … and we’d play the show and play our grueling 20 minute set, we’d be exhausted and then we’d take like two months off,” to which Shinoda jokingly added, “We need to go back to that model.”

Our congrats to Linkin Park, the latest inductee into the prestigious Hollywood RockWalk. Check out video of Bennington’s speech above and footage of the band placing their handprints in cement below, along with our exclusive photos from the event.

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